Beleaguered Chief Justice Maria Lourdes A. Sereno on Tuesday said several measures have been put in place to promote transparency in the judicial branch of the government.
In a news statement, Sereno said as early as 2012, numerous reforms have been initiated in order to give the public more access to the Judiciary, sans the freedom of information law, which is still pending in Congress.
Sereno made the remarks in response to President Duterte’s recent call to the Legislative and judicial branches of the government to strengthen democratic institutions by instituting measures that would allow the public free access to information about their affairs.
Sereno said among the measures that the judiciary has implemented toward transparency include the release of summaries of the statement of assets, liabilities and net worth of the justices since 2014 and fiscal and financial data like disbursements from Judiciary Development Fund and Annual Procurement Plans.
Also part of the measures, she added, is the audio livestreaming of the oral arguments of the Supreme Court (SC) and posting of relevant pleadings and legal documents on cases of public concerns in its web site.
Sereno also mentioned the issuance of updates on relevant and current developments through the SC PIO Twitter page, release of Bar exams results every year since 2013 and approval of new rules and procedures and guidelines to judges.
She added that the SC information office has been conducting news briefing on Tuesdays after each session of the High Court.
“The Court is also deliberating on a draft Rule of Access to Information About the Supreme Court pursuant to its power to promulgate rules and I ower to supervise the lower courts,” she said.
No factual basis
The camp of Sereno, meanwhile, dismissed an accusation raised in the impeachment complaint filed against her that she was responsible for the delay in the release of survivorship benefits of spouses of deceased justices and judges.
Such accusation, according to lawyer Jojo Lacanilao, one of the spokesmen of Sereno, has no factual basis
Lawyer Lorenzo Gadon, who filed the impeachment complaint against Sereno, claimed that the Chief Justice sat on the applications for survivorship benefits before her office.
“The Chief Justice did not ‘intentionally delay’ action on petitions for retirement and/or survivorship benefits, which applications are in the first place required to be decided by the Supreme Court as a collegial body,” he said in a statement.
In fact, Lacanilao said the chief magistrate even took actions to address the concerns of surviving spouses of members of the judiciary.
“The Chief Justice is sympathetic with the plight not just of retirees in the Judiciary, but of the people, who long for an expeditious resolution of their cases. To this end, she has even instituted measures to rationalize and expedite the very process respecting retirement benefits that complainant assails,” the lawyer said.
He added that Sereno was not the one who created the technical working group (TWG) to review applications for survivorship benefits, contrary to the testimony of Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez during the hearing of the House Justice Committee on Tuesday.
He explained that the TWG was created upon request of the SC’s special committee on retirement and civil-service benefits through Memorandum Order 43-2015 dated November 16, 2015, approved by Sereno and the chairmen of the two other divisions of the SC, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr.
“Sereno merely implemented the terms of the memorandum creating the special committee since it is empowered to recommend the creation of subcommittees to discharge its functions,” Lacanilao pointed out.
Under the said memorandum, the special committee has the power to propose policy guidelines and other relevant recommendations to the Office of the Chief Justice to streamline and expedite the financial approval process relative to requests for retirement and civil-service benefits.
Lacanilao claimed that TWG was tasked to “screen applications for retirement benefits and/or similar or related benefits for the purpose of determining whether said applications require further study by the committee and to study in more detail the legal concerns related to the grant of retirement benefits.”
Meanwhile, two spokesmen Sereno has asked the House Committee on Justice to recall the show-cause order issued against them over their public statements viewed as critical of the committee hearing the impeachment complaint.
The said House committee issued show-cause order against lawyers Aldwin Salumbides and Joshua Santiago for their statement at a news conference in Quezon City on November 25, describing the ongoing impeachment proceeding as a “dog and pony show.”
Santiago said that he “sincerely meant no ill-will” and “neither slur nor smear was intended” when he made such statement.
“It was never my intention to offend or disrespect the Honorable Committee or any member thereof,” Santiago said in a two-page compliance he submitted to the House Justice Panel.
With Jovee Marie N. dela Cruz